womblelust

If your nerves are up to a 7hr trip out of La Paz down the world’s most dangerous road (official classification) then do not miss Caranavi. Possibly as close as you are going to get to the garden of Eden. Butterflies larger than your hands, condors galore, sun, heat, seriously cheap shopping, great market, the people are fascinating, living a somewhat isolated lifestyle now the airstrip has been closed down. Great hotel down past the airstrip with a fantastic pool and the most friendly staff you can iamgine. Pretty basic, but just getting away from the cold into the sticky heat of Caranavi was such a relief that basic was great.

Las Yungas are unmissable, although after a few hours of the drive having a bottle of Singani might have helped reduce the frayed nerves a little. Our driver was fairly competent, although his reversing when on the edge of a 2-3000m drop left a little to be desired (just get out!) – it was the other lunatics coming up in their trucks overladen with people and goods, and some blatantly wasted, that really made it hairy!

Afterwards, we struck off up to Coroico which was also an interesting drive though way less scary, and condor littered! There was a festival in Coroico so we ended up sleeping in the garage of a hotel, so might be an idea to book ahead. Fantastic French restaurant in Coroico that leaves the taste buds stunned.

We’d heard of this place from somewhere – no-one could quite remember where – and it took some tracking down. We eventually found a taxi driver willing to take us and it took a couple of hours along a fairly hairy road from Pune. The temple does not allow women in so we had to watch from a distance in the courtyard as the stone purporting to be from Qamar Ali Darvesh’s death bed was lifted by 11 men using only a single index finger each. A big strapping Canadian tried to lift it alone, on the understanding that if he did he had to hoist it right round his head – he failed and said that it was pretty heavy. Each of them puts their index finger under the rock and shouts Qamar Ali Darvesh, and the rock lifts into the air seemingly effortlessly.

I remember thinking it was all most odd, there in this tiny little village, with a nearby tower over which the vultures hovered to peck the bones clean from those taken there after death. I have no idea how it worked, but it did, and I still look at the photos and get a slight prickling in my spine. A far better description than mine can be found here http://www.margaretdeefholts.com/levitatingstone-shivapur.html

Wow! Unbelievable bit of structural engineering. The temples are built into the rock and are girnormous! We went by rickshaw which was pretty funky though painful on the bum! Lots of precious stones to buy in the car park and around. Well worth a visit.